Origin

There are four different ‘sounds’ in English. The one relating to noise is from Latin sonus. Related words are dissonance (Late Middle English) ‘inharmonious’; resonance (Late Middle English) ‘echo, resound’; resonant (late 16th century); resound (Late Middle English); and sonorous (early 17th century). Sonar, however, is an acronym formed from Sound Navigation and Ranging on the pattern of radar. Sound, meaning ‘in good condition, not damaged or diseased’, is from Old English gesund. In Middle English the prominent sense was ‘uninjured, unwounded’. Use of sound to mean ‘having well-grounded opinions’ dates from the early 16th century; the phrase as sound as a bell appeared in the late 16th century. This puns on the first meaning of sound, and also on the fact that a cracked bell will not ring true. The third sound (Late Middle English) ‘ascertain the depth of water’ is from Old French sonder, based on Latin sub- ‘below’ and unda ‘wave’. The final one for a narrow stretch of water is Middle English from Old Norse sund ‘swimming, strait’, related to swim.

Origin

There are four different ‘sounds’ in English. The one relating to noise is from Latin sonus. Related words are dissonance (Late Middle English) ‘inharmonious’; resonance (Late Middle English) ‘echo, resound’; resonant (late 16th century); resound (Late Middle English); and sonorous (early 17th century). Sonar, however, is an acronym formed from Sound Navigation and Ranging on the pattern of radar. Sound, meaning ‘in good condition, not damaged or diseased’, is from Old English gesund. In Middle English the prominent sense was ‘uninjured, unwounded’. Use of sound to mean ‘having well-grounded opinions’ dates from the early 16th century; the phrase as sound as a bell appeared in the late 16th century. This puns on the first meaning of sound, and also on the fact that a cracked bell will not ring true. The third sound (Late Middle English) ‘ascertain the depth of water’ is from Old French sonder, based on Latin sub- ‘below’ and unda ‘wave’. The final one for a narrow stretch of water is Middle English from Old Norse sund ‘swimming, strait’, related to swim.

Then he bangs four more times, as if sounding the echoey depths of a hidden chamber.

The first ship to sound at a greater depth than 5,000 fathoms was the British surveying vessel Penguin in 1895.

Attempts to sound depth acoustically instead focused on determining the exact distance of a sound source by measuring the time taken for a sound generated aboard a ship to travel to the sea bottom and back.

Origin

There are four different ‘sounds’ in English. The one relating to noise is from Latin sonus. Related words are dissonance (Late Middle English) ‘inharmonious’; resonance (Late Middle English) ‘echo, resound’; resonant (late 16th century); resound (Late Middle English); and sonorous (early 17th century). Sonar, however, is an acronym formed from Sound Navigation and Ranging on the pattern of radar. Sound, meaning ‘in good condition, not damaged or diseased’, is from Old English gesund. In Middle English the prominent sense was ‘uninjured, unwounded’. Use of sound to mean ‘having well-grounded opinions’ dates from the early 16th century; the phrase as sound as a bell appeared in the late 16th century. This puns on the first meaning of sound, and also on the fact that a cracked bell will not ring true. The third sound (Late Middle English) ‘ascertain the depth of water’ is from Old French sonder, based on Latin sub- ‘below’ and unda ‘wave’. The final one for a narrow stretch of water is Middle English from Old Norse sund ‘swimming, strait’, related to swim.

Origin

There are four different ‘sounds’ in English. The one relating to noise is from Latin sonus. Related words are dissonance (Late Middle English) ‘inharmonious’; resonance (Late Middle English) ‘echo, resound’; resonant (late 16th century); resound (Late Middle English); and sonorous (early 17th century). Sonar, however, is an acronym formed from Sound Navigation and Ranging on the pattern of radar. Sound, meaning ‘in good condition, not damaged or diseased’, is from Old English gesund. In Middle English the prominent sense was ‘uninjured, unwounded’. Use of sound to mean ‘having well-grounded opinions’ dates from the early 16th century; the phrase as sound as a bell appeared in the late 16th century. This puns on the first meaning of sound, and also on the fact that a cracked bell will not ring true. The third sound (Late Middle English) ‘ascertain the depth of water’ is from Old French sonder, based on Latin sub- ‘below’ and unda ‘wave’. The final one for a narrow stretch of water is Middle English from Old Norse sund ‘swimming, strait’, related to swim.